On Thursday, an anti-corruption court in Lahore acquitted Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza Shahbaz, in the Ramzan Sugar Mills case. Judge Sardar Iqbal Dogar delivered the verdict, which had been reserved earlier in the week.
The case centered on allegations that, during his tenure as Punjab chief minister, PM Shehbaz misused his authority by allocating public funds for a 10-kilometer sludge carrier in Chiniot district. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) claimed this project was designed to benefit the Ramzan Sugar Mills, owned by Shehbaz’s sons, resulting in a purported loss of Rs213 million to the national exchequer.
In its reference filed on February 18, 2019, NAB accused PM Shehbaz of corruption related to the sludge carrier’s construction. The case was reopened in November 2023 after the Supreme Court struck down previous amendments to the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999. Following this decision, the case was transferred from the accountability court to an anti-corruption court in October 2024, as NAB could not prosecute alleged offenses involving amounts less than Rs500 million.
During the hearings, defense counsel Amjad Pervez argued that the sludge carrier was intended for the benefit of the local area, not solely the Ramzan Sugar Mills. He highlighted that the complainant had acknowledged this point and had not accused PM Shehbaz and Hamza of corruption.
It’s noteworthy that in November 2023, PM Shehbaz and ten others were acquitted by an accountability court in Lahore in the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme reference. NAB had informed the court that it found no evidence of financial corruption or misuse of authority by Shehbaz, stating that the allegations were unsubstantiated under the National Accountability Ordinance of 1999.
In the 2018 reference, PM Shehbaz was accused of causing significant financial loss to the national treasury by awarding a contract to a construction firm without a competitive bidding process.
